Natural History: Corn Snake

Natural History: Corn Snake

Pantherophis guttatus

This beautiful adult Pantherophis guttatus specimen was seen poolside at my family's home on John's Island on Sunday afternoon.  With the fear of scaring it away before being able to grab a photo, I was unable to get close enough to the specimen in order to determine sex.  It came to bask in the sun on the deck from the area around our pastures that back up to the nursery and landscaping company.  This area consists of a large pond, tall grassy fields, pine tree lots, seldomly used buildings and plenty of other vegetation that I'm sure house an abundance of the rodents that corn snakes prefer to dine on.

Approximately 4.5 ft long, it was easily recognizeable as a Corn Snake by its docile nature and bold coloration patterns including the boldy marked underside, beautiful red/orange keeled dorsal scales and the unique spear-like design on the head.  He quietly lounged on the deck until he was disturbed by a pack of Labradors that thought like he looked like a great play toy!  He quickly slithered into the grass and through a gap in the fence back to the pastures.

The underside of Pantherophis guttatus boasts a white and black checkerboard pattern with black and white stripes under the tail.

(Notice Checkerboard markings on underbelly)

The dorsal coloration of this species can be greatly varied in the wild ground color ranging from reds, oranges, grays and browns.  The scales are weakly scaled and divided, and blotches are strongly outlined in black.  The docile nature, ease of breeding and ease of domestication of this species has made the Corn Snake a favorite pet to snake lovers.  Breeders have been able to selectively create a wide array of dorsal color patterns that are both unique and beautiful ranging from albinos, pastels, and bolder variations.

A key factor to identifying Corn Snakes in the field is the spear point marking between the eyes created by the uniting of two dark neck lines.  Also the postocular stripe on either side has a dark border and extends onto the neck region. 

It was a beautiful suprise to find laying poolside, and now that I have a more thorough knowledge of snake species and identification, I was much more at ease about sharing my space with him!